New Britannia
The major power in the Kal'Lambda sector, the empire of New Britannia controls around a third of the plants in the sector. Social Structure At the bottom of the social ladder in New Britannia are the presents, these are the simple workers who dig in the mines, work in the factories and plow the fields and do other unskilled labor. Though they are low, they are an important part of the society, and keep the economy functional. The next level up is a mix of other types of labors and artisans. This is the largest social class in the empire, and it is made up of most types of skilled labor, including spacers, artisans, engineers, doctors, domestic servants, shop keepers, and conscripted solders. The next highest level is made of the upper class and officers. These are the people that demand a great deal of respect due to their position or the amount of money that they make or have. Non noble officers in the Navy and Army fall into this category, governors, mayors, judges, magistrates as well as the the rich, such as corporate heads and bankers. Members of this class are expected to behave in more dignified manner than the common folk below them, and many of them spend time and money competing with each other to be the most dignified in an attempt at social standing growth. The Nobility are the second highest tier in the hierarchy. To be a noble is have either been born into a noble family or the be granted a title by the monarch. Many nobles are incredibly wealthy, manly in the form of land, industry, or ventures that have succeeded, though there are always a few destitute nobles around. Many nobles have the rolls of the upper class. It is common for a noble to be a officer, a governor, mayor or other appointed position. Additionally nobles have special rules that do apply to them and many of the normal rules do not. For example many nobles fund and retain a private army and navy to protect there own investments. At the top of the Social pile, is the monarch and the royal family. They are the top as they are the government. The current monarch is King George XII In the empire it is always correct to make way and deffer to those of a higher social standing than yourself Leadership The Empire has and has always been ruled over by a monarch form the royal family. The succession process is more modern than a traditional monarchical system. When one monarch dies or is found unfit for duty, then the council of governors and nobles will assemble and elect a new monarch form the royal family. While it is often the eldest child of the old monarch there have been many cases where they were judged unfit to rule and another was chosen. During their rule, the monarch has compete power, however it is custom for them to appoint a Parliament (generally this means retaining the old one) to help govern. Each planet is controlled by a governor who gets their power handed down directly to them by the monarch. While common for to simply pass along a family line, this is not a requirement and dose not move the governor up into the ranks of the nobility. This has caused many arguments and fights, sometimes all out wars, between planetary governors and local nobility. Beneath the governors are locally appointed mayors to rule over individual settlements. These are appointed by the people of the settlement. Current State The New Britannia Empire currently of 12 star systems. These systems are classified into three groups (Core worlds, Fringe worlds, and Colony worlds) depending on when and how they were added into the empire. When the sector was first settled, three worlds close together were selected by a splinter group form earth, claiming to have the rightful claim to the British throne. These worlds were successful, and after the scream, managed to retain enough of there technology that they could quickly recover and obtain tech level 4. Once contact was reestablished, there was a brief war of succession, and at the end the three worlds were once again united, becoming the core worlds of the empire. During the time before the scream, the core worlds had set up some settlements on nearby planets, along with other groups and states. Once the core worlds were united after the scream, they attempted to reconnect with there outlying colonies, and after a series of planetary civil wars, these planets were brought into the empire. These worlds became known as the fringe worlds of the empire, while they do respect the empires control, there are still strong Independence and resistance movements on many of them. The newest additions the the empire are the colonies. During the last decade, a series of colonies were founded near border worlds to the empire. many of the colony worlds already had civilizations on them, both alien as well as society that fell during the scream. The empire is currently attempting to establish the colony in such a way that they can someday be added into the proper empire. Military Might The Empire of New Britannia maintains a strong standing military in order to provide for the protection of its citizens, and maintain the peace. The military is separated into two branches, the Royal Navy, and The Royal Army. The Royal Navy controls all of the military star-ships and orbital instillation. Additionally they train their own set of marines for void combat. The Navy is based out of their large star port around Schmitt, where their head offices and fleet command is. Though the exact composition of the fleet in unknown, the public do know that there are 3 main capital ships in operation: the Battleship HMS Dreadnought, the carrier HMS Phobos, and her sister ship, the carrier the HMS Demos The Royal Army is a much less cohesive unit, with each planet having branch of it. The purpose of the Royal army is to directly protect the citizens form planetary threats, and to protect the planet form orbital threats that slip past the Navy. To this end the Army is responsible for maintaining the planetary web of breaker guns and nuke snuffers. When there are unruly native or a rebellion on a planet it is the Army's job to deal with it. In some cases such as a major rebellion or an extra sector threat, both forces might be called to work together, but those are cases that are few and far in between.